The past Month (mostly LARP...)
Down in South visiting family and friends for the weekend, it's all nice and pleasent downhere. Lots of food and rural walks.
After two and a half years and at the end of his tenth event (eleventh including Discourse…) and exactly a year and a day (IC) since his elevation to fame after being arrested by Flail and put on trial, Varas finally died. Slain by those who really deserved to achieve it.
Family Ties was quite amazing, continuing the theme of fantastic Easter events. This one I think had some of the most dramatic power-shifts ever seen in Maelstrom, as powerful groups got smashed and completely annihilated. I believe this event had the highest number of character deaths ever.
It soon was obvious that Varas had become really very famous, I got random colony heads and tradehouses treating him a good deal of respect (or in one case being aggressively confrontational), and even being referred to as “The one they call the demon hunter…”, the New World Pioneer frequently name dropped me (in a relatively positive manner), which was ace.
I was almost constantly on my feet, barely having the chance to just sit down and pray all event. Oddly (despite their perspective) hunting Flail, Aestar and Co became a secondary objective, I had so much else to do. Alas when I mobilised a mob to hunt down the Wasps miday sunday, they where all OC, they appeared a few hours later and went on a kamkazi-rampage whilst I was praying to the Merchant about them, and it I really got into vengeful smiting of the heathens who'd murdered my friends and faithful.
After a reasonably productive and optimistic start to the event, things started going progressively downhill for Varas, despite his personal successes there seemed to be many external factors undoing what he was trying to achieve, as the churches took a collective beating even as Varas tried to cohere and mobilise their strength.
Then it appeared that an insane experiment and equally insane and confusing truce threw things completely as the Arethusa and the Fallen got a chance for some real banter (they have a similar sense of humour...).
OC, it was awesome to finally have a situation where I could roleplay with a fallen for more than a few seconds without having to end the conversation with DOUBLE! DOUBLE!.
Sunday night was bizarre, fruity but so very cool. Getting to accuse Justice of fancying Lies Angelique, kicking Vengeance in the nuts (after a blasphemous windmill incident) and headbutting Aestar really made Varas’ last few hours so special…
I got plenty of Angst-fuel as many of his friends and allies died, whilst others where just cowered as his enemies got a PR victory, something Varas managed to undo with his final act...
His Death was really the only way Varas could really go, and very fitting.
(It was a shame Mardocai and Anna weren’t there for my final moments, still I think my final words to Auriel and the various angsting I got after my death made me happy)
However the one downer for me was that for the first time in 10(11?) events, I didn’t feel like I clicked into character as Varas. I was busy doing stuff in Varas like manner, but I didn’t feel very on form with Varastastic comments. However arguably Varas wasn’t a very articulate or plithy character anyway.
.
Perhaps as a side effect of Varas becoming a celebrity, he became more social, and in a way his personality drifted a bit too close back towards me, perhaps I was a bit too busy to just sit down and roleplay properly, or perhaps I was too well prepared for dying and enthusiastic about playing my next character concept.
This was a bit of a shame, however it didn’t impair my enjoyment too much, and in hindsight the event seems more awesome than I thought it was at the time.
As it was I was happy that Varas died when he did, he managed to make a bigger impact and become more famous than I ever thought possible when I created him with Andy as a comedy sidekick whilst we where bored, slacking of work and high on cleaning fumes.
In fact at one point I started to get worried that he might actually succeed at defeating the Fallen.
Also Varas' death gives new groups like the awesome Spine of the World the space and oppertunity to take on the deamonkicking mantel without having to be in my shadow. And it means I no longer have to suffer that OC niggle when someone runs to me shouting “Varas! Flail’s in the bar!”
I’ve got more than a little positive feedback from the players of Varas’ enemies, apparently Nick (Flail) was a little sad OC to see me go (I get the impression it’s rare for someone to treat Flail as a character rather than part of the Maelstrom scenery) and apparently some of the most powerful groups in the system where scared by the prospect of having to fight me.
The comment on the death sheet “Was there an IC reason for the death?” made everyone laugh.
Not bad for a short, balding, ginger madman in a trilby.
Farewell Friar Isaac Varas, CID 377.2
“It is Better to Die in Exaltation than to Live in Damnation”
Sunday.
…However… If I failed to get into Varas, I found it far too easy to get into Khaniel’s. After lacking the confidence to play an Eidolon, before having it suggested by Nick and Will (Justice), I’m so glad I did, and esp with the work I did on creating a backstory with Ian (Auriel) before the event.
After going IC at 11AM and bimbing around for a while in the worst bandana related disguise possible, I got to wander into the back of Varas’ funeral, upon enquiring what was happening to a member of the NPC crew (who attended discourse) she replied “They are mourning a Saint of the Merchant who was killed.” (I was rather chuffed with this OC,
I then got to laugh at all the inspiring comments made by my former friends (esp the one about cutting down the fallen on sight as I stood at the back…), and follow as the mob charged out of the millenese camp yelling “VARAS!” as they cut down all the Fallen they could find.
I the decided to say hello to my old friend Auriel, which was as suitably cinematic and dramatic as I hoped.
I then reformed in a purple demon form, caused sockpuppet and conga line related respawning-shenanigans and got to have a fun philosophical chat in the Maelstrom pocket.
All in all, I clicked with Khaniel disturbingly well an awesome few hours, and I’m so looking forward to the next event.
Aside from that, my Easter apathy for Shadovald fortunately dissipated as soon as I actually started playing again, which is good. Had an enjoyable adventure minging up the newbies, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. It’s surprisingly fun being the grizzled veteran helping the new heroes to kick ass. I also got to have an enjoyable mage-duel with Igneous Narsay… and managed to survive more than 10 seconds!
Hopefully I’ll be able to manage more to get onto more than two adventures this term…
Oh, in the real world, my Job/house hunt for the end of June is going somewhat slowly, I shall be putting serious effort into this when I get back to York.
After two and a half years and at the end of his tenth event (eleventh including Discourse…) and exactly a year and a day (IC) since his elevation to fame after being arrested by Flail and put on trial, Varas finally died. Slain by those who really deserved to achieve it.
Family Ties was quite amazing, continuing the theme of fantastic Easter events. This one I think had some of the most dramatic power-shifts ever seen in Maelstrom, as powerful groups got smashed and completely annihilated. I believe this event had the highest number of character deaths ever.
It soon was obvious that Varas had become really very famous, I got random colony heads and tradehouses treating him a good deal of respect (or in one case being aggressively confrontational), and even being referred to as “The one they call the demon hunter…”, the New World Pioneer frequently name dropped me (in a relatively positive manner), which was ace.
I was almost constantly on my feet, barely having the chance to just sit down and pray all event. Oddly (despite their perspective) hunting Flail, Aestar and Co became a secondary objective, I had so much else to do. Alas when I mobilised a mob to hunt down the Wasps miday sunday, they where all OC, they appeared a few hours later and went on a kamkazi-rampage whilst I was praying to the Merchant about them, and it I really got into vengeful smiting of the heathens who'd murdered my friends and faithful.
After a reasonably productive and optimistic start to the event, things started going progressively downhill for Varas, despite his personal successes there seemed to be many external factors undoing what he was trying to achieve, as the churches took a collective beating even as Varas tried to cohere and mobilise their strength.
Then it appeared that an insane experiment and equally insane and confusing truce threw things completely as the Arethusa and the Fallen got a chance for some real banter (they have a similar sense of humour...).
OC, it was awesome to finally have a situation where I could roleplay with a fallen for more than a few seconds without having to end the conversation with DOUBLE! DOUBLE!.
Sunday night was bizarre, fruity but so very cool. Getting to accuse Justice of fancying Lies Angelique, kicking Vengeance in the nuts (after a blasphemous windmill incident) and headbutting Aestar really made Varas’ last few hours so special…
I got plenty of Angst-fuel as many of his friends and allies died, whilst others where just cowered as his enemies got a PR victory, something Varas managed to undo with his final act...
His Death was really the only way Varas could really go, and very fitting.
(It was a shame Mardocai and Anna weren’t there for my final moments, still I think my final words to Auriel and the various angsting I got after my death made me happy)
However the one downer for me was that for the first time in 10(11?) events, I didn’t feel like I clicked into character as Varas. I was busy doing stuff in Varas like manner, but I didn’t feel very on form with Varastastic comments. However arguably Varas wasn’t a very articulate or plithy character anyway.
.
Perhaps as a side effect of Varas becoming a celebrity, he became more social, and in a way his personality drifted a bit too close back towards me, perhaps I was a bit too busy to just sit down and roleplay properly, or perhaps I was too well prepared for dying and enthusiastic about playing my next character concept.
This was a bit of a shame, however it didn’t impair my enjoyment too much, and in hindsight the event seems more awesome than I thought it was at the time.
As it was I was happy that Varas died when he did, he managed to make a bigger impact and become more famous than I ever thought possible when I created him with Andy as a comedy sidekick whilst we where bored, slacking of work and high on cleaning fumes.
In fact at one point I started to get worried that he might actually succeed at defeating the Fallen.
Also Varas' death gives new groups like the awesome Spine of the World the space and oppertunity to take on the deamonkicking mantel without having to be in my shadow. And it means I no longer have to suffer that OC niggle when someone runs to me shouting “Varas! Flail’s in the bar!”
I’ve got more than a little positive feedback from the players of Varas’ enemies, apparently Nick (Flail) was a little sad OC to see me go (I get the impression it’s rare for someone to treat Flail as a character rather than part of the Maelstrom scenery) and apparently some of the most powerful groups in the system where scared by the prospect of having to fight me.
The comment on the death sheet “Was there an IC reason for the death?” made everyone laugh.
Not bad for a short, balding, ginger madman in a trilby.
Farewell Friar Isaac Varas, CID 377.2
“It is Better to Die in Exaltation than to Live in Damnation”
Sunday.
…However… If I failed to get into Varas, I found it far too easy to get into Khaniel’s. After lacking the confidence to play an Eidolon, before having it suggested by Nick and Will (Justice), I’m so glad I did, and esp with the work I did on creating a backstory with Ian (Auriel) before the event.
After going IC at 11AM and bimbing around for a while in the worst bandana related disguise possible, I got to wander into the back of Varas’ funeral, upon enquiring what was happening to a member of the NPC crew (who attended discourse) she replied “They are mourning a Saint of the Merchant who was killed.” (I was rather chuffed with this OC,
I then got to laugh at all the inspiring comments made by my former friends (esp the one about cutting down the fallen on sight as I stood at the back…), and follow as the mob charged out of the millenese camp yelling “VARAS!” as they cut down all the Fallen they could find.
I the decided to say hello to my old friend Auriel, which was as suitably cinematic and dramatic as I hoped.
I then reformed in a purple demon form, caused sockpuppet and conga line related respawning-shenanigans and got to have a fun philosophical chat in the Maelstrom pocket.
All in all, I clicked with Khaniel disturbingly well an awesome few hours, and I’m so looking forward to the next event.
Aside from that, my Easter apathy for Shadovald fortunately dissipated as soon as I actually started playing again, which is good. Had an enjoyable adventure minging up the newbies, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. It’s surprisingly fun being the grizzled veteran helping the new heroes to kick ass. I also got to have an enjoyable mage-duel with Igneous Narsay… and managed to survive more than 10 seconds!
Hopefully I’ll be able to manage more to get onto more than two adventures this term…
Oh, in the real world, my Job/house hunt for the end of June is going somewhat slowly, I shall be putting serious effort into this when I get back to York.